Devil in the Blue Dress (excerpt from Waiting)

by Lady of Spain

Disclaimer: S. Meyer owns Twilight

Every day, he said to himself, I should ask Leah to a movie. It was too late to see the one he had planned on, but so what? And every day, something always came up, until so much time passed that he'd be embarrassed to ask her now. Christmas was already on the way.

The wolves had a party at the tribal complex. There were streamers, and mistletoe, and food, and music, and lots of dancing. Jacob sat in the corner, amused, as he watched the boys one by one, kiss the girls that came through the front door where the mistletoe was hanging.

Leah finally made her entrance, and she nearly put his eyes out. She was a knockout tonight, in a midnight blue lace dress that hugged her in all the right places. Her hair was swept back and held with rhinestone studded combs; her eyes were smoky discs, peeking out under long black lashes, and those lips were luster bright, covered in a burgundy gloss. Holey … he could barely close his mouth.

Not one of the boys got up the nerve to kiss her. Jacob couldn't believe it. What the hell were they waiting for? They should pay just to even look at her. Cowards, that's what they were—well, he wasn't.

She stood there for a moment; her eyes darting about the room. Jacob made a beeline toward her, and in a New York minute, his arms were around her shoulders, and his mouth busy tasting her lips.

Hoooleeeey … the room suddenly seemed warmer, and he felt dizzy from the scent of her perfume. God, she smelled so good.

Leah wasn't shy at all about kissing him back. In fact her fingers instinctively clamped onto the roots of his hair, holding him captive—not that he wanted to bug out anytime soon. He wondered why he hadn't kissed her before this. Man, his pulse was about to make the jump into hyper space.

They grinned at each other as the kiss ended. Actually, it was Quil who broke it up by tapping on Jacob's shoulder. "Hey, buddy, come up for air, eh. You're giving us all a complex here."

Some guy, probably from the Makeh rez, walked through the door behind them. Jacob didn't recognize him.

"I'll take it from here," he said.

Leah turned to Jacob, and smiling said, "Bye, Jake."

The man took Leah's hand and led her to a table at the far wall.

Inexplicably, Jacob was miffed. Who was that guy? Did Leah invite him? Wait a minute … he had no right to feel that way, did he? Leah was a big girl. She could invite anyone she wanted to. She was a free agent. Jacob had no hold on her. Anyway, it couldn't be anything serious or he would've heard about it by now. Yeah, that was it—nothing to panic about.

Still, he couldn't control his wandering eyes as they kept glancing over at the table the couple was sitting at for the rest of the evening.

Leah looked like she was enjoying the man's company. Who was that guy?

Jacob left the party early. He was feeling restless and deprived. Leah should have been sitting at his table, with him, not that other jerk. Okay, so maybe the guy was good looking, and tall and muscular, and maybe he could make Leah smile, but he was still—a jerk. Case closed!

Jeez, that night, every time he drifted off, there was Leah in that blue lace dress. Then he would begin thinking about her in the arms of that man. Who was that guy? He made it his business to find out.

His buds came by the next day to work on a scooter Embry had won on a bet. Quil wasted no time to grill his Alpha. "So … you and Leah?"

Jacob's head swiveled to look at Quil. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't mess with us, Black. We got eyes. And we saw what we saw when we saw it. You two were smoldering so hotly, I thought the place was gonna go up like kindling."

"Wait a minute, guys."

Stopping him with one hand raised, Quil remarked, "No, it's okay. I approve. She's a looker. I see the attraction. But seems like that hunk from the Makah rez was pretty attracted too."

Jacob reached for a rag to wipe the grease from his hands. "Who was that guy, anyway?"

"I think his name's Dan something or other."

Quil took a sparkplug out of its box and threw the empty container at Embry. "Embry—what's that guy's name? You know, his dad owns the bait and tackle shop on the north coast, over at Sekiu."

Catching the box one-handed, Embry answered, "Oh you mean, Dan Neah?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

Embry pitched the box into the waste basket in the corner. "Can you just imagine if they got hitched? She'd be Leah Neah."

The two idiots guffawed over that one.

"Yeah … well … not likely."

Quil tapped a finger on the side of his head. "Oh, I get it. You're gonna put a stop to it, huh?"

Jacob shrugged. "Maybe … So how long have they been seeing each other?"

"I don't know. A couple of months or so, I guess."

A couple of months? Where the hell had he been, and why didn't he see it? Oh well, it was sure to run its course quickly—he hoped. He bent his head back down over the scooter, tightening another washer with a new bolt. Jeez, this was gonna be the worst Christmas ever.